Ten British citizens have been swept up in a £127 million cocaine smuggling sting across the Atlantic.
An international cartel is believed to have been trafficking drugs on yachts from South America to Europe.
An investigation began in 2020 after police identified a British gang operating in Spain.
Authorities made a major breakthrough in December 2023, when the French Navy intercepted a vessel 1,200 miles east of Martinique in the Caribbean.
Officers found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on-board. The three British crew members, including the skipper, a 30-year-old man from Stornoway, Scotland, were arrested.
Three women from Boston, Lincolnshire, aged 19, 38, and 28, who were all living in Malaga were arrested.
A 54-year-old woman from Chelmsford, Essex, and a 49-year-old woman from Nottingham were also detained.
A 63-year-old man from Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, and a 24-year-old British man were busted too. All four were living in Malaga.
Also detained was a 37-year-old man from Bracknell, Berkshire, who was living in Portugal, as well as the 30-year-old yacht skipper and another Scottish man aged 34.
Since then, at least another 300 kg of cocaine have been seized, alongside eight boats and 36 vehicles, as well as firearms and ammunition.
A total of 52 suspects have been arrested since. They sailed back and forth from Valencia, Alicante, and Málaga, to Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Panama.
Multiple routes to bring the substance to Europe have been identified by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The NCA said the gang was led by a Norwegian believed to have been trading in drugs for more than two decades.
He had the full trust of the Colombian and Mexican cartels, and coordinated the production and transportation through South America until it could be shipped to Spain.
Neil Keeping, NCA regional manager in Spain, said: ‘This Spanish-led international operation has dismantled a major drug trafficking crime group and resulted in the arrests of 10 British nationals – eight from England and two from Scotland.
‘The NCA’s international network has played a leading role in sharing intelligence with overseas partners to intercept huge shipments of drugs and trace key members of the criminal enterprise.
‘A portion of the Class A drugs seized would have undoubtedly been destined for the UK, where its supply at street level fuels violence and exploitation, and brings misery to our communities.’
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